Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-15
DAILY HERALD.
DUDES HELD UP TO VIEW.
\ Saratoga study of the Men
who Lead the Fashions.

fashionable to wear straw hats in the
daytime and brown Derbys at night.
The white Derby is abandoned.
The perfect dudes-the rich ones
who have taste-nearly all dress pre-
cisely alike in the evening. The rule
is to have very close trousers of dark
cloth, with faint stripe, a cut-away
coat, buttoned to show only two or
two and a half inches of a scarf
of delicate light shade, decked
with small pin of dark stones
such as rubies, garnets or emeralds.
The collar is quite high, and turned
down i'll two broad bends in front.
Patent leather CATERS, black high
hat or Brown Derby completes what
is visible OF this dress. They still
carry big canes, and all appear to
have ordered their tailors to make
their clothes SO loose and big that
their heads look small and slightly
wanting-as wholly disproportioned
to their bodies as the heads Of so
many pins. In the daytime this gen.
eral looseness of dress is carried to an
extreme. The dudes then wear huge
coats of light-colored, rather hairy
English cloth, very full trousers,
usually with dull check in the cloth,
and little round hats. Their canes, or
sticks, as they call them, continue
enormous, and remain with bent
handles OF wood or silver. Gloves
have almost disappeared from the
hands of men. The prevailing dude
shoe is broad, fiat, low-heeled con-
trivance with full round toe. The
effect of wearing them is to make the
young men squash" along as if they
had on moccasins or tennis shoes.
Nothing more than moustache is
permissible on the face of the fashion
able man, and he wears his hair a
trifle long, particularly in front so as
to have suggestion of bang. But
the hideous ear pieces that were born
in the Stock and Produce E xchanges
tabs of hair combed in front of the
ears, as Cruikshank used to picture
them on the Artful Dodger-have
wholly disappeared.
White vests are worn, but are not
exposed, as both the sack coats by
day and the frock coats by night are
buttoned all the way up and down.
Canes are still clutched in the middle,
as an Irishman on the stage always
holds stick he is going to fight with.
good with Mr.. Wall. He is this
morning arrayed in pale crab suit
checked with dark brown stripes, a
white straw hat with a blue band,
white overgaiters on plain leather
shoes, a high collar and light mauve
scarf and small pin; but his coat is
thrown open and discloses an ordinary
white vest. AS to his cane, whenever
he is walking with lady he holds it
in both hands behind his back, with
the knob between his shoulder blades
and the ferrule below his coat. Does
this strike the serious reader as a
trifie? He is mistaken. This autumn
on the avenue all young men of fash
ion will be seen carrying their canes
in that way. This piece of news is to
them the most important in to-day's s
Sun.
Apparently (and this is not fashion
note, but philosophical rehection) a
cast-iron expression of face is required
in the perfect dude-a sort of inert,
phlegmatic, heavy look, with just a
tinge of sadness showing through it.
To look exactly as dude desires to
look, imagine yourself about to meet a
friend who wants to borrow hundred
dollars, and who ought to have it
from you, but is not going to get it.
These young tailors' models at Long
Branch and in this place are new de-
velopment in American society. They
are practically the only young men
who stay at such places the
whole season through. Other
young men can not afford it.
They have to work, or, at least
desire to work and wait until they
have made their piles-somewhere
beyond middle life-before they loaf
away their summers. Until the dudes
arrived there were no young men at
such places except those who came
for a week or two. The dudes appear
to be young men who are either heirs
in receipt of fortunes, large or small
or else pensioners OF rich fathers. The
college boy is not to be classed as a
dude. The fashionable resorts are
full of college boys who try their best
to be considered genuine rwells, but
the fraud is always transparent. They
are too young and callow and fresh.
Their mouths are big and their
limbs are ridiculous. They laugh and
joke out loud, and are full of animal
vigor. Their moustaches are failures,
and they never do anything more
dangerous to themselves or society
than to smoke cigarettes. They don't
compare with the genuine dudes who
hirt with the married women, drive
stunning carts, order champagne by
the pail after the ladies Fave retired.
gamble like army officers, sleep till
noon, and exercise like laborers to
keep their waists slim. The
Prince OF Wales would give
fortune for such a waist as Mr..
Wallis. If he would not he is devoid of
taste. But another thing that is very
apparent about dudes is that neither
money nor taste, nor both combined,
will serve to make dude. There are
half dozen young men in Saratoga
who copy Mr.. Wall as closely as his
own mirror, but they don't look right.
One stoops, another is built like a
brewer, and another is as awkward as
. farm boy with guitar. Dudes are
like athletes and prize fighters-in
their prime when young-but 30 is a
dudes best age. while "a is nearer
the best age of an athlete.
In one ST their relations to society
the dudes command respect. They
are models of grace and gallantry
when in the company Of ladies'. They
never are covered when with ladies
unless permission is accorded them to
put ON their hats, no matter where it
may be. Their politeness, differential
expression of face and pose of body,
and their ability to listen (perhaps be-
cause they cannot TALK are matters
which, if copied by the rest of the sex